MADINA: Madina Region's Governorate and Uhud Police have told the ex-husband of an American woman who allegedly committed suicide that they will not release her body to him. The woman's body has been kept in King Fahd General Hospital in Madina, for 16 days. The ex-husband, M. Sh., said the authorities informed him that completion of the burial procedures and receiving the body are restricted to the dead woman's eldest brother, who is responsible for her according to the Shariah, provided the power of attorney has not been granted to another person, within the bounds of regulations. The ex-husband of the dead American woman, Zainab, 27, came from Al-Qassim Saturday to complete procedures for burying his divorced wife. He said his application was rejected because officials say his relations with the dead woman ended when they separated. The ex-husband and authorities have related sharply different views about what motivated the woman to jump out of a fourth-floor window, which caused her death. Authorities have said she committed suicide and the ex-husband has said she tried to flee from her family because they would not let her leave the apartment where she lived. The late woman's father, whose health is poor, has granted her eldest brother, A. M., power of attorney to run the 35-member family's affairs. The brother's recent departure to England to complete his studies at a university there, after he attended the offering of condolences, has delayed the family receiving the woman's body because his time in the Kingdom ended before completion of burial procedures, according to M. Sh. According to the ex-husband, the dead woman's brothers have asked the Notary Public Office in Madina to issue power of attorney to her stepbrother from the father's side, but it insisted on the presence of the man who now has power ofattorney, the eldest brother who is in England.
